Big South Liberty Picked to Repeat as Conference Champion Code: [font=courier]Team Votes Liberty (10) 94 Elon (2) 80 Coastal Carolina 57 Charleston Southern (2) 56 Radford 54 High Point 30 UNC Asheville 21 [/font]
Mid Continent Conference Oakland picked to repeat in Mid-Con preseason Women’s Soccer poll Code: [font=courier]1. Oakland (5) - 5 2. Oral Roberts (1) - 9 3. Valparaiso - 13 4. IUPUI - 19 5. Western Illinois 20 6. Southern Utah - 24 (First place votes in parentheses) [/font] This is the conference that has IUPUI. The school actually wants to be called that. Why?
Missouri Valley Illinois State Tabbed as Preseason Favorite Code: [font=courier] Team Points 1. Illinois State (7) 63 2. Evansville (1) 54 3. Creighton 51 4. SMS 40 5. Drury 26 6. Indiana State 24 7. Drake 17 8. UNI 14 [/font]
The NAIA Preseason top 25 from the NSCAA The top 10: Code: [font=courier]1 Westmont (Calif.) 19-4-0 2 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 20-4-2 3 Azusa Pacific (Calif.) 17-1-1 4 Lindenwood (Mo.) 20-4-2 5 Concordia (Ore.) 20-4-0 6 Union (Ky.) 15-1-2 7 Simon Fraser (British Columbia) 9-5-1 8 Belhaven (Miss.) 17-2-1 9 Berry (Ga.) 20-3-0 10 Embry-Riddle (Fla.) 16-3-0 [/font] Last year's "Cinderella" begins the year ranked #1.
NSCAA Preseason Top 25 1 Santa Clara University 2 University of North Carolina 3 UCLA 4 University of Portland 5 Texas A&M University 6 University of Virginia 7 University of Notre Dame 8 Penn State University 9 University of Connecticut 10 University of Nebraska 10 University of Texas 12 Stanford University 13 University of Florida 14 Clemson University 15 University of California 16 St. Mary's College 17 Florida State University 18 University of Michigan 19 Rutgers University 20 University of Tennessee 21 Dartmouth College 22 University of Washington 23 University of Illinois 24 Southern Methodist University 25 West Virginia University 25 University of Georgia 25 Pepperdine University
rankings These are pretty legit. They are voted on by coaches so they are more thorough. Cal and Washington should be strong this year. It is Laura Shott's senior year for Cal and the addition of Fuller from Duke should help. Washington returns there entire team less one contributor. They also get there best defender back from a redshirt year. Michigan is big ten charity. The most underachieving team in the nation. They can only beat the big ten teams. Sad state of affairs there. Does anyone know why cal's goalkeeper left? Mallory Moser is her name I believe. She was the returning starter...would have been a sophomore.
Some pretty big discrepancies between the Soccer Buzz and NSCAA polls, even at the top. Texas A&M, UConn, and Nebraska in particular. Any thoughts on these teams?
Goatboy I had the exact same thoughts. Seems as though some teams are riding their successful past but it remains to be seen if they can deliver. Nebraska still has latham and is the most aggressive style in the country with 4 forwards. But they did not impress last year. UConn is a total mystery to me. But Len has been successful for a long time so maybe he can take a bunch of little known recruits and make them big timers. A&M lost Thrasher and a bunch of other seniors. I dont see them being anywhere near the team of last year. But they did put it on Texas ( 6-0) and keep their never lost to Texas string intact. It wont be six nil again but until Texas shows they can beat em, they just own em!
I tend to agree that A&M won't be nearly as good this year, although they have experience winning big games that Texas lacks. IMHO, Texas has easily the most talent in the Big 12, returning all starters from last year (except GK Wilkerson from injury). Plus some promising newcomers: Julie Gailey and Mia Moody were impressive in last night's exhibition. (A subject for another thread.) And that Kelly Wilson girl is pretty good too. My Big 12 prediction would be 1. Texas 2. Nebraska 3. A&M BTW, this would be a good year for an up-and-comer like Oklahoma or Missouri to upset one of the big three.
SEC rankings Coaches Pick Florida to Repeat as SEC Women's Soccer Champion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, August 22, 2002 Birmingham, Ala. -- Florida was selected as the favorite to claim the 2002 women's soccer title in the Southeastern Conference by the league's 12 head coaches. This marks the eighth consecutive year that the Gators have been tabbed by the coaches to win the title. Coming off their sixth straight SEC title in 2001, the Gators earned six first-place votes, topping Tennessee who received three votes and Georgia who earned two. Auburn and Kentucky also each received one vote as SEC Champion. The Gators were selected as tops in the East with 61 total points (six first-place votes), edging Tennessee's 57 points and five first-place votes. Florida returns seven starters, including All-SEC players Jordan Kellgren and Danielle Murphy. In the West, Auburn was the clear favorite with 64 points. Auburn returns eight starters from last year's squad, including SEC Freshman of the Year goalkeeper Megan Rivera. Points were compiled on a 6-5-4-3-2-1 basis for each division, though each coach was not allowed to vote for his of her own team. Each coach also voted for one team as an overall conference champion. The 2002 season begins August 27, with conference play set to begin September 27. The 2002 SEC Tournament will be held November 7-10 in Oxford, Miss. Preseason Coaches' Poll (First-Place Votes in Parentheses) SEC Champion: Florida (5); Tennessee (3); Georgia (2); Auburn (1); Kentucky (1) 2001 Results Team Pts. SEC Pct. Overall Pct. Eastern Division Florida (6) 61 8-1 .889 21-4-1 .827 Tennessee (5) 57 7-2 .778 11-6-1 .639 Georgia (1) 45 7-2 .778 13-6-1 .675 Kentucky 39 5-4 .556 12-8-1 .595 Vanderbilt 24 4-5 .444 7-10-0 .412 South Carolina 20 2-6-1 .278 8-7-3 .611 Western Division Auburn (10) 64 5-4 .556 11-8-1 .575 Miss. State (1) 52 5-4 .556 13-8-0 .619 Ole Miss (1) 48 4-5 .444 10-10-1 .500 Arkansas 38 2-7 .222 6-14-0 .300 Alabama 26 2-6-1 .278 10-7-1 .583 LSU 18 1-6-2 .222 7-8-3 .472
It looks like I was pretty close with my guesses on SEC rankings. I am rooting for Tennessee or Georgia or Auburn because someone else needs to win the title!!! It appears that the winner of the western half is not automatically seeded into second place in the SECs anymore which is good. You could win the SEC west and still be only the 4th or 5th best team in the conference--and get a great draw. I remember reading somewhere that it is one of the richest conferences in the country--big $$ to throw behind the soccer programs. For whatever reasons the western side of the group seems to be weaker--not that all of the teams are weak-- but there are always a couple that due to win loss record and strength of schedule seem to pull the whole conference down. It appears that teams on each side have to play most of their SEC games from within that side-with a few crossovers. So if you are on the west you automatically end up with teams that don't help you in 'strength of schedule' rankings, which affects your ranking overall. I wonder why that is--is upgrading a schedule that big a deal? Add one stronger team a year? I don't see the point in playing a bunch of weak teams to get a W record. Obviously not everyone can play UNC every year but there are now many good teams out there. I remember when FSU was at the bottom of the heap--and look at them now--great players, tough schedule and of course the coach.
selfish coaches The reason coaches schedule soft games is to pad there coaching records and save their jobs (or look to move on). MSU and LSU are very guilty of soft non-conference scheduling.
NSCAA Rankings Come Out The rest of the NSCAA rankings have finally come out. It looks like the division II rankings are pretty much like the final rankings from last year. And that bothers me a bit. There appears to be quite a bit of eastern US bias in the voting. Why are the other CCAA teams selected so low? Cal Poly Pomona should have been ranked no lower than 4th. After all, 2 of the loses and 1 tie were at the hands of the national champion UCSD Tritons... http://www.nscaa.com/scripts/runisa.dll?m2.131534:gp:544011:14028+rank/W/NCAA/2002/Preseason/D1 http://www.nscaa.com/scripts/runisa.dll?m2.131534:gp:544011:14028+rank/W/NCAA/2002/Preseason/D2 http://www.nscaa.com/scripts/runisa.dll?m2.131534:gp:544011:14028+rank/W/NCAA/2002/Preseason/D3
Patriot League Navy Picked To Defend Regular-Season Women's Soccer Crown Code: [font=courier]Navy 82 Bucknell 78 American 76 Army 61 Lafayette 59 Colgate 42 Holy Cross 26 Lehigh 17 [/font]
I believe Cal Poly was 4th in the final 2001 Jones rating - but that is not a poll. If it were a poll I doubt Cal Poly would rank that high. Polls tend to under-value strength of schedule. I suspect that many of the voters in that poll don't know who Cal Poly played - all they know about is what their record was. Polls are like that - and they invariably over-react to losses to good teams. Cal Poly has it tough having to play UCSD so many times every year. It hurts them in the polls. That's just the natural consequence of being in that conference.
Soccer America Rankings Soccer America has announced their preseason rankings. The coaches in their poll were not listed. The results show UNC ahead of Portland then Santa Clara. The full list is at socceramerica.com. 1. Carolina 2. Portland 3. Santa Clara 4. Virginia 5. Texas 6. Penn State 7. Stanford 8. Notre Dame 9. UCLA 10. Texas A&M
Soccer America Top 25 Here is the link to those rankings. http://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562132070 At the bottom, it has this note: "The Soccer America Women's Top 25 will appear at http://www.socceramerica.com by 9 p.m. ET each Monday during the regular season except Labor Day, when it will appear on Tuesday, Sept. 3, by 9 p.m. ET"
Soccer Times Poll Soccer Times adds yet another preseason poll. This one has Santa Clara #1, but its close with UNC receiving 5 first place votes. Soccer Times also reveals its list of voting coaches. The link is: http://www.soccertimes.com/ncaa/top25/women.htm This is all alot of fun judging who will be #1 in December. It should be a most competiitve year.
SoccerTimes has a very good panel of coaches. I would probably put more faith in this poll than the others since the coaches know the players and recruits. I would give SoccerAmerica the next nod since their writers spend a great deal of time visitng with coaches to learn the players. On the other end of the scale is SoccerBuzz... Did anyone else notice that only 12 first place votes are shown but the panel has 15 members. this could mean 3 coaches did not bother to participate, or it could mean three coaches lanched into flights of fancy on their first place votes. BYU or OSU as national champ!
Re: rankings That's a bit harsh. When was Michigan ever expected to be an elite team? They've only had a team since '94 and they've never been ranked higher than #20. Women's soccer is still top heavy and lacking parity - the teams in the low 20's aren't really expected to contend for a title. They've done alright by getting to the 2nd round of the tournament the last four years. They are ranked where they are because they start seven seniors, lost only one player from last year that saw any time at all, and are led by a player on the U-21 nats. That probably doesn't mean anything to you, but beating #13 Florida and BYU this weekend should. They won't have arrived as a program until they beat Notre Dame, though.
They beat BYU too?!!! That's great. Like I said in another post, the rankings this week ought to be very interesting. Hey and look at Florida--new in '95 and they win the title. Never say never.